


moving up

by steepedinwords



Series: we move lightly [4]
Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Bisexual main character, Chickens, Eventual relationship, F/F, Friendship, Gen, Slice of Life, slight deviations from canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-01-20
Packaged: 2019-03-07 01:11:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13423548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steepedinwords/pseuds/steepedinwords
Summary: Jenny picks up her new chickens and thinks about picking up chicks. Well, one chick.  And wouldn’t it be nice if her dumb brain could stop making puns about important things?





	moving up

“So what are you gonna name them?”

Sam’s question catches Jenny by surprise. She’s been focusing on not jostling the precious cardboard box in her arms, the twin of the one he carries. Inside each are half-a-dozen tiny balls of yellow fuzz, peeping frantically and staring about with beady eyes as their small pink claws scrabble against the cardboard. Sam’s helping her bring her new chickens up from Marnie’s, and she gets a funny choky feeling in her chest every time she glances down and sees them. They’re so _cute. ___

__“I don’t know yet,” she answers belatedly. “Maybe something on a theme, so it won’t matter too much when I mix them up.”_ _

__“They all look the same right now, yeah,” Sam says cheerfully. “Cute, though.” He’d come early in the morning with Lewis to help load Jenny’s produce into the truck, and stuck around when he heard she might need a hand bringing her new acquisitions home._ _

__(“No worries, I didn’t have anything else to do today,” he'd said when she thanked him. “Abby’s busy with scholarship applications, and Seb’s got a lot of work orders right now. It’s nice to have something to do.”)_ _

__It rained last night, and it’s hard not to slip. The mud of the cleared path up from the ranch squelches under their feet, Jenny’s work boots and Sam’s nice white sneakers both getting dirty. He doesn’t seem to care. They come in sight of the coop Robin built below the house. It still smells like fresh green paint, and Jenny is proud of the neat enclosure she built outside out of scrap wood and chicken wire. She had a hard time falling asleep last night, too excited about picking up the chicks from Marnie. The wire roof over the enclosure was a good precaution, she thinks now, thankful for Robin’s suggestion. Marnie warned her about hawks. Lots of grass and weeds for them to eat in there, too. Perfect._ _

__They settle the chicks and leave them cautiously exploring their new home, zooming around comically in small bunches. Sam accepts Jenny’s offer of breakfast (fried mushrooms, with fresh eggs from Marnie’s - soon she’ll have her own eggs), and they sit on the steps of the cabin for a little while to eat, enjoying the cool breeze raking through their hair. It won’t get hot till this afternoon. It’s peaceful. Not silent, of course - she can hear cows mooing down at the ranch, peeping from her chickens, wind sighing through the trees and rustling the new green leaves. A bird is singing somewhere. Sage, the stray cat Jenny adopted a few weeks ago, twines silently around their legs. She’s glad the chickens have an enclosure; she doesn’t know if Sage has been around chickens before, but it’s a risk she doesn’t want to take._ _

__“Wanna play a game?” Sam pulls his portable gaming console from his hoodie pocket and Jenny happily takes it. It’s nice to have some technology to play with again, and nice to have company. Just one-on-one, like Sam now, or Leah, who comes over often - not too overwhelming, and it’s so nice to have someone take an interest in her work. The break is nice, too. Sometimes she forgets she doesn’t have to work every moment of every day. The habit is hard to break, even though it’s been weeks since a camera recorded her every move at work._ _

__Speaking of Leah, Sam has just said goodbye and headed back down the path to town when Jenny spots her coming up through the trees. Leah’s hair is braided around her head like a crown, and there are dandelions tucked in it. She’s been out foraging, it looks like. And she’s carrying something. Jenny runs down the path to meet her, unable to contain her grin. They’re both a little out of breath when they meet, but that’s not the reason Jenny’s heart is thumping. That just happens when Leah’s around._ _

__“I heard you have an addition, so I brought a welcome gift,” Leah says. Jenny glances at the wine bottle in Leah’s hands._ _

__“I don’t think wine is good for chickens,” she says, deadpan._ _

__Leah turns pink but laughs with her joke. “Well, it’s like when you bring someone a baby present. It’s really for the parents.”_ _

__“I’m a chicken mom, got it.” Jenny grins._ _

__“Anyway.” Leah hands her the bottle, freckled cheeks rosy. “It’s blackberry wine. I picked the berries myself last summer and made it myself. This is the last one.”_ _

__“You made this?” Jenny takes it, impressed. It even has a homemade label tied on with twine, written in Leah’s curvy script. “Wow, thanks so much. Oh! I have something - come up to the house a minute?”_ _

__Inside, Leah looks around the cabin. Jenny is thankful that she picked up her clothes this morning. There’s not much more here than when she arrived, but she has about six potted plants as a “screw you” to her old supervisor at Joja, and she’s rigged up blue tea towels with tiny white flowers as curtains. Robin installed the solar panels on the roof the other week, so she has power, though nothing really to hook it up to. There’s hammering coming from outside, where Robin is working on the kitchen addition, with Maru’s help. She joked yesterday that Jenny is providing all her work for the year already. Robin doesn’t have a crew, but sometimes she brings a family member to be an extra pair of hands, or recruits Jenny when she can take a break from farm work. Jenny is learning to hammer nails in straight, at least. Next on the list is a real bathroom._ _

__“What do you think?” she asks Leah, a little nervously._ _

__“It’s small, but I’m used to small. I like it.”_ _

__Jenny sets down the bottle of wine on the table and goes to fetch her gift from the cupboard. It’s jam, made from the salmonberries she’s found everywhere the last few weeks. Pierre’s had canning jars, and when Jodie saw her purchase, she offered her a few dozen more. So now Jenny has more than enough for jam and jelly and pickles, just in time to process all of the fruits and vegetables she has coming in. She made sure to save a few for Leah._ _

__“Here,” she says, turning around and holding out two jars. She’d wrapped a bit of ribbon around the top of each of them to make them prettier. “I, um. You’ve been a really good friend to me, and I wanted to thank you.”_ _

__It doesn’t feel like enough, not for all Leah’s done, especially not for the gift of seeing past Jenny’s awkwardness and being friends with her anyway. Jenny’s trying not to think too far past “friends,” just in case. Reading too much into things has never ended well for her, and while she’s hopeful that people here will be different than in the city, just coming out (ha, coming out) and saying she’s bi, she likes girls, is always scary. And maybe Leah doesn’t even like girls. Maybe she spends hours with other girls, too, takes them foraging and touches their faces and brings them wine too. But while Jenny is trying hard not to ruin things with a crush, Leah smiles, and it’s like the lights just came on in the room, bright and happy._ _

__Yeah, Jenny thinks. I’m a goner._ _

__“Want company?” Leah asks. “I can stay and help around the farm, if you want?” She sounds tentative, too, like maybe Jenny _doesn’t _want her around always, and Jenny jumps before she can overthink her reply. “Of course!”___ _

____The bottle of wine goes really well with chanterelle mushrooms and spinach stir fry for dinner, and Leah makes an amazing risotto, even cooking over an open fire. They drink out of Jenny’s chipped stoneware mugs and eat with mismatched cutlery, and bring a plate of food to Robin outside, and watch the sunset while they put the chicks to bed before Leah leaves for the night._ _ _ _

____This is all new territory. Jenny’s not quite sure what to call it, but she knows one thing. Having Leah around is the best thing in her new life._ _ _ _


End file.
